I was inspired to write this post by a segment that was on TV Saturday morning. The segment was a behind the scenes look at the University of South Carolina Football program. As I was flipping through the channels, I happened to see some weightroom footage that forced me to stay on the channel for more than a few minutes.

During the segment, Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier was shown working out. In the segment, he mentioned that he works out 5-6 times per week. He also talked about how important it was for him to get his workouts in. At the age of 67, the fact that Coach Spurrier gets in 5-6 workouts per week is pretty impressive. They did show him performing exercises such as rear delt flyes and dumbbell curls while also showing him walk on the treadmill and ride a bike. Who cares? The fact that he is making that kind of commitment at his age is very impressive.

What I was also really impressed with was how important he thinks exercising is not only for himself, but for every coach in the profession. Coach Spurrier talked about how when he speaks to other coaches at clinics, he preaches the importance of exercise and how coaches shouldn’t be overweight while coaching their kids. He encourages overweight coaches to “Get on the treadmill”.

I agree with coach Spurrier not only from a health prospective, but also from a standpoint of being able to coach. I think a coach needs to be able to demonstrate proper form and execution. In the case of a football coach, maybe that is demonstrating what a player needs to do on a specific play?

In the case of the Strength and Conditioning Coach, we are professionals on the subject of exercise; specifically strength and conditioning. So, Strength and Conditioning Coaches need to be able to demonstrate proper form in exercises- not only in the weightroom, but also on the field demonstrating agility, acceleration, and plyometric drills.

I’m not saying that you need to be as strong or as fast as your athletes. However, you should be lean, strong, and in condition. Your athletes are going to respect you more if you are able to “Look the part” and be able to do what they do even if it is slower. Be fit enough to coach.

I hope everyone is doing well. The weather is actually starting to get a little cooler here in SoCal indicating fall is here (I guess, because it is still in the 70’s-80’s). I’m doing my best to stay busy between being a dad and husband, reading, writing, and training myself. It’s been lots of fun watching Will at his practices and games as I know that those are moments that I wouldn’t be able to do usually at this time of year.

It’s been a while since my last update as to what is going on at HockeySC. As usual, we have had some great contributions:

I really like planks. As long as I can remember, I have always used them in my program. Whether I called them planks or “Forearm Bridges”, planks have been a staple in the program. I think they are beneficial for all athletes for developing stability or “pillar” strength.

We are now coaching and performing planks differently. For a long period of time, we would have our athletes just hold the plank position and ask them not to move. We also asked them to think about squeezing and firing their “core”. We may have lightly tapped them with our hands and/or feet so that they resisted us moving them. Now we are using more of an “RKC Plank”. This is a version of the plank that I learned at the RKC cert in 2011.

I must be honest and say that I didn’t think there could possibly be any different versions of a standard plank. However, I may be guilty of losing some attention to detail when it comes to the Plank. Previously, we may have asked our athletes to hold the position until the time ends. We are now asking our athletes to sustain the plank position by producing total body muscular tension for the whole time. We will tell them to contract their glutes, tighten their core, lift their kneecaps up with their quads, and try to push their elbows and feet into the floor. Also, we want their feet together, head neutral, and elbows slightly ahead of the shoulders.

The Plank will also help us coach our athletes on some proper positions on other exercises. Exercises such as standing presses, pull ups, most TRX exercises, and carrying variations are going to include the plank position somehow.